Kess Dissident Lily

Commander / EDH* Discard UBR (Grixis) Vorthos Zombie

Tsal

Land (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 3x Island
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 6x Swamp
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Discard Matters (4)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Bloodchief Ascension
• 1x Liliana's Caress
• 1x Waste Not

Tutors (4)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Demonlord Belzenlok
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded

Ramp (10)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bubbling Muck
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring

Draw (8)

• 1x Commence the Endgame
• 1x Court of Cunning
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
• 1x Liliana's Contract
• 1x Teferi, Master of Time
• 1x Windfall

Dreadhorde (7)

• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Invade the City
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip
• 1x Widespread Brutality

Proliferate (5)

• 1x Contagion Engine
• 1x Inexorable Tide
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1x The Chain Veil
• 1x Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Zombie Horde (3)

• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 1x Oath of Liliana

Commander (1)

Removal (8)

• 1x Callous Dismissal
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Enter the God-Eternals
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Finale of Eternity
• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Settle the Score
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Discard (6)

• 1x Liliana Vess
• 1x Liliana of the Veil
• 1x Liliana's Triumph
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Liliana, Untouched By Death
• 1x Liliana, Waker of the Dead

Resurrection (6)

• 1x Confront the Past
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Necromantic Summons
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1x Young Necromancer

Storm (2)

• 1x Brain Freeze
• 1x Professor Onyx

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Maybeboard

Other (2)

• 1x Soul Shatter
• 1x Young Necromancer

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Liliana Vorthos tribal using Kess, Dissident Mage as the main engine.

Motivation

I'm a sucker for lore and Liliana has it in spades. I had considered using Liliana, Heretical Healer   as the commander and have seen a number of decks do well with her at the head. However, I wanted a few more colour for flexibility and to include a bit more of her story involving Nicol Bolas. This lead me to Grixis. I also was interested in building a Kess, Dissident Mage deck since I think her recycling cards from the grave is a really neat mechanic. I can see how it would be pretty broken if built more competitively. I have seen a number of Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle style decks, but I find that win condition pretty boring. More interested in telling the story of Liliana Vess, I decided to fuse the two ideas into this deck. Unfortunately, a lot of major story pieces didn't make the cut. Story pieces involving her brother, like Josu Vess, Lich Knight and Tainted Remedy, did not synergize enough to make it here so I went more along the Dreadhorde and Demon Pact plotlines. In Bolas's Clutches would also have been neat but also missed the cut. Sadly, there's nothing in here about Gideon either since I would have to delve in . In the end the deck mainly focuses on Liliana, showcasing her powers of necromancy and her struggle against her demon benefactors. I managed to include Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God both because I think that art is super cool and I think being able to use opponent's planeswalker abilities would be quite interesting in a multiplayer setting. Worst comes to worst, I use my own which are plenty potent. Until this point - though not for lack of trying - I have not been able to include a Bolas card in any of my commander decks. This deck ended up being a pseudo-super-friends deck which is a first for me. So far, I've found it really fun in its execution.

Simple Goal of the deck

The main goal of the deck is to support and resolve the Liliana planeswalkers effects and push for an ult. The Dread and Zombie hordes provide a defense while the proliferate cards rush Lilies up to high loyalties. Most of the Lilies have a discard effect so some cards are in here to take advantage of that. Kess, Dissident Mage provides a strong draw, ramp, and removal engine that keeps the deck running smoothly.

Win Conditions

Part of the beauty of this deck is the diversity of ways in which it can win. However, because most of the cards in the deck progress two or more win conditions, leaving any one unattended can lead to my opponents becoming overwhelmed by them. It's a game of win condition whack-a-mole where not many board wipes can handle all of them at once since they are spread predominantly across creatures, sorceries, planeswalkers, and lands.

A signature, but rather unlikely, win condition is to have Liliana's Contract on board simultaneously with the four named demons: Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Demonlord Belzenlok, Kothophed, Soul Hoarder, and (Griselbrand is the fourth in her canonical story but, due to being banned, is replaced by) Archfiend of Ifnir.

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is a win condition in itself if I can clear the legendary creatures/planeswalkers from opposing boards. This is not too difficult in this deck.

The dreadhorde cards' amass abilitiy serves as a great blocker and distraction from the other win conditions. Cards like Gleaming Overseer not only amass a larger army but they also power up my non-army tokens generated by cards like Liliana's Mastery. Liliana, Heretical Healer  , Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Liliana, Death's Majesty and the exceptionally powerful ultimate of Liliana, the Last Hope further this end as well. Left unchecked, your zombie horde can overwhelm your opponents' defenses. Not to be overlooked, many of the amass spells are sorceries and instant that double as protection or removal spells that can be further recycled by Kess, Dissident Mage providing some unexpected synergies.

Since I force discards and mill a lot of cards, I can resurrect powerful creatures ahead of curve from both mine and my opponents' graveyards with my resurrection spells. Rise of the Dark Realms and Reanimate hold the two ends of the CMC spectrum of such spells but are ultimately the most game warping. Hitting the ultimate loyalty abilities on Liliana Vess, Liliana, Waker of the Dead, or Liliana, Defiant Necromancer are all potent.

Another side to the forced discards is I force my opponents to play with more limited resources which makes it harder for them to break my defenses. In games where forced discards are running strong and I have enough control, I can use Liliana's Caress, Bloodchief Ascension, and Waste Not to close out the game. I know this can be less fun for my opponents to play against so I haven't based the deck completely around it, making it a less common but still potent win condition. At the very least, they provide chip-away damage which may be easily ignored until opponents' hit lower life totals.

The final win condition is achieved later in the game if the mana base gets too potent. Cabal Coffers can produce huge amounts of in the late game especially when paired with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Crypt Ghast and Bubbling Muck (the latter of which is recyclable by Kess) can effectively double your mana output. The most terrifying boost comes in the ultimate ability of Liliana of the Dark Realms which puts our mana output to astronomical levels (yes I know Kess has access to infinite mana combos with cards like Archaeomancer+Ghostly Flicker+Peregrine Drake but I'm trying to stay on theme here). We can pump this mana into blowout spells like Torment of Hailfire, Rise of the Dark Realms, or an overloaded Cyclonic Rift which we can resolve twice in one turn if necessary. Alternatively, the mana can go to advancing all the of the aforementioned win conditions. With any of the proliferate spells in the deck, we can hit the ultimate loyalty abilities of multiple Lilies closing out the game in a great spectacle.

Important Spells

Intuition is a really expensive card, but is well worth the investment. Basically it tutors three cards from the deck and can be used twice. Say for example, I tutor Reanimate, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, and Demonlord Belzenlok on turn 3. No matter what the opponent chooses, turn 4 will likely have a massive demon in play generating more advantage.

Since there are very few cards this deck laments being sent to the graveyard, Gamble is an auto-include. If we don't discard the card we searched, great we can use it. If we do, oh well, we can reuse it anyways if it was a creature, instant, or sorcery. We also trigger discard abilities like Archfiend of Ifnir.

That said, there are cards in the deck that you don't want to see in the graveyard: all the Liliana planeswalkers. That's why Aid the Fallen is in here. It allows the recursion of important Lilies as well as adding useful creatures to the hand either to cast or use as discard fodder.

Faithless Looting is excellent for hand fixing, discard triggers, and milling. The important thing with this card is that it doesn't discard for cost like Thrill of Possibility or Cathartic Reunion and is therefore less risky if countered.

Teferi, Master of Time is incredible in this deck. In the early game, he can fix your hand and fill your grave with the creatures, instants, or sorceries you need to get the engine moving. He provides a wonderful distraction and can even protect himself from attacks with his phase out effect. I don't run him for his ult though I acknowledge that it is quite powerful.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	21 - 0 Mythic Rares 44 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.44
Tokens	Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Liliana, Waker of the Dead, Emblem Liliana, the Last Hope, Monarch Emblem, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Graveyard Control, Planeswalker Centric